Take Time To Look At The Big Picture
Here is a picture I took in Houston a few days ago.
It helps to stop and take a look at the big picture.
I took this photo in Eleanor Tinsley Park.
Occupy Houston Involvement Meeting January 7 At 2 PM In Tranquility Park
Above are the details of an Occupy Houston meeting to be held Saturday, Jan 7 at 2 PM in Tranquility Park.
There will be a lot to talk about as the next steps are planned for Occupy in Houston.
Everybody is welcome. Your involvement and your ideas are welcome.
Cincinnati Bengals-Houston Texans Playoff Preview—Taxpayers Have Already Lost
Two of my home town teams–The Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans–are in the NFL playoffs against each other this weekend. The game is in Houston on Saturday, January 7 at 3:30 PM CST.
(Above–Program From Providence–Green Bay game on October 25, 1931. Green Bay won this game 48-20. Mention of the Green Bay Packers allows to me link to a post from last year about how Packer coaching icon Vince Lombardi was a Democrat. )
In my 44 years, I’ve lived in Providence, R.I., Cincinnati and Houston.
Both the Bengals and Texans have benefited in recent years from public money for new stadiums.
I’ve voted no every chance I’ve gotten against public money for sports stadiums.
Despite the massive public subsidy and sneaking into the playoffs this year with 9-7 record, the Bengals are best known for losing and losing year after year. The last time Cincinnati won a playoff game was 1990.
Before the opening kick off, taxpayers in both Cincinnati and Houston have already lost. Taxpayers will also keep on losing after the game is over.
My enmity for the Bengals is eternal, as I was a resident of Cincinnati and a Cincinnati City Council staffer when the Bengals were scamming the money.
The taxpayer money the Bengals gouged will seemingly never be paid off. (Told you so.)
My boss at the time, a current Hamilton County, Ohio Municipal Judge named Tyrone Yates, voted no as a Cincinnati Councilmember on enabling the Bengals stadium deal.
Here is a 2004 Houston Chronicle article about publicly financed stadium deals in Houston.
This weekend I’ll root for my 3rd hometown team. The Providence Steam Rollers won the NFL title in 1928 and never–as I am aware–demanded public money.
The Providence Steam Rollers played in the NFL between 1925 and 1931. Here are facts about the team from the excellent Pro Football Reference.com.
The Steam Rollers ask for nothing but that we keep them in our memories. Keeping the Steam Rollers in our memories is something which involves no corporate welfare at all.
Field of Schemes is a good blog about the business of building sports stadiums.
Certificate For Honorably Discharged Veterans—War Based On Lies
Above is the certificate I got a few weeks back from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs noting the death of my father in March of 2011.
My father–Anthony S. Aquino–-was a combat veteran of the Korean War.
Family members of honorably discharged veterans can get this certificate. It is signed by the President.
My dad would have been glad that this certificate was signed by Barack Obama and not George W. Bush.
Tony viewed G. W. Bush as little more than a murderer for sending troops to fight and die in Iraq based on lies.
Dad was of the opinion that President Bush’s twin daughters should go and fight in Iraq.
I’m putting his views a bit more nicely than dad often did.
It is everyday people who fight our wars, while politicians and war profiteering corporations gain.
Also, many civilians die in our wars. Though our nation often lacks the moral character to discuss that fact.
The Coldest Winter—America and the Korean War by David Halberstam is a well-regarded account of the Korean War.
Cultures of War—Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9/11/Iraq by John Dower is about how militaristic cultures bungle and bluster their way into endless conflict.
The Best Iowa Caucus Result Would Be More Hard Work To Keep Those Folks Out Of The White House
The Iowa Republican caucus has been a time suck to follow, and will leave you with the impression that Iowa is filled with mean-spirited nuts.
(Above–Cornfield in Newton, Iowa. Every place has all types of people.)
Yet Obama carried Iowa in 2008. To the extent that voting for Obama is a progressive act, Iowa is not–taken on the whole– a right-wing place.
You have to know what is going on with the news of the day. At the same time, it is important to focus on what your own side can do better, and on generating your own content so that the narrative of your life–and the lives of the people on your side of the aisle–can be imagined and constructed by friends rather than by foes.
The best result of the Iowa Republican caucus would be many of our fellow citizens resolving to work to keep any of the candidates in that caucus from ever reaching the White House.
Another strong result would be the understanding that we don’t have sit around and just watch this junk on TV. We can help shape our own futures with our own actions.
The Occupy Wall Street patriots who protested both Republicans and Democrats in Iowa get this concept.
The work of freedom is up to each of us.
Cincinnati Punk Rock Legend Seeks Bandmates For New Acoustic Protest Band—Find A Use For Your Talents In The Big Political Year Ahead
This is from my longtime friend Robert “Jughead” Sturdevant of Cincinnati, Ohio—
“I am looking to form an acoustic guitar-based jam band where all members sing left wing protest /labor/progressive songs in the alternative scene/occupy protests/coffee shops/and places they won’t let my hardcore band play. I have an excellent practice space and I want to get out and play on the weekends.”
Jughead is a king of the Cincinnati punk rock. Above you see Robert front and center performing at Newport, Kentucky’s legendary Jockey Club at some point in the 1980′s. The odds are decent that I was at the show in the picture.
Robert’s band is SS-20. They are mainstays of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky music scene.
Robert also does spoken word performances in Cincinnati, and has written for Cincinnati’s great local publishing house Aurore Press.
If you’re interested in joining the band Jughead is looking to form in Cincinnati, please leave a comment at the blog. I’ll make sure he gets in touch with you.
There is always something that you can take part in to help bring about a better and more hopeful world.
If you’re not looking to join a band in Cincinnati, then please consider some way you can be part of the action in the big political year of 2012.
This blog will in 2012 be focusing on ways that everyday people can make the best use of their talents, and about how everyday people can assume responsibility for their futures in our democracy.
The work of democracy and freedom is up to each of us.
In 2012 It Will Be Up To Each Of Us To Do The Work Of Freedom—Texas Progressive Alliance Round-Up
My first post for 2012 is the weekly round-up from the citizen-bloggers of the Texas Progressive Alliance. This is good because 2012 is going to be about individual citizens working together to take command of their political and democratic fates.
You are already aware of the facts in our nation and in Texas. You are aware that wealth inequality is growing, that corporations own our politicians, and that millions of Americans are in poverty or near poverty. Reposting links about these facts on blogs or on Facebook is not going to change very much. While it is important that people be informed, what is really at issue is the work you are ready and willing to do to help bring about a better reality.
(Above–In Texas and everyplace else, there is much to accomplish. Map from Wikimedia Commons. )
Every Texan and every American has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, volunteer for candidates and causes, engage in acts of civil disobedience, and to run for public office.
Along with the round-up this week, please allow me to offer two additional blog links.
Jobsanger is a great Texas blog written by Ted McLaughlin in Amarillo that offers a daily perspective on the news both in Texas and around the world.
Larry Beck in Denton, Texas writes Woodgate’s View. Woodgate’s View started in 2011 and has been a great addition to the already strong list of Texas political blogs.
Also, there are Occupy Wall Street efforts taking place across Texas and across the nation. Look around the web and Facebook to find one near you. If there is not one near you—Then start one yourself.
There is a lot to accomplish in 2012. Don’t sit around and let other folks rip off your future, and don’t let other folks do the work that you should be helping to get done.
Best of luck to all in 2012. Please keep in touch and thanks for reading Texas Liberal.
Here is the round-up—
Last week’s House Republican cave-in on the payroll tax cut extension is intertwined with the Keystone XL pipeline: both have to be decided upon again in 60 days. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has some discussion about the implications.
Bay Area Houston thinks maybe Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg should resign.
Neil at Texas Liberal posted the Occupy Houston response to felony charges for some Occupy protestors who took part in civil disobedience at the port of Houston. This is a matter that should be of concern to all progressives, political advocacy groups, and civil libertarians.
Federal court judge Sam Sparks gave an early Christmas present to Texas microbreweries and their customers last week. Off the Kuff explains. Read more »
Texas Liberal Is 2011 Blog Of The Year—Let’s Make 2012 A Year Of Optimism And Hard Work
I have selected this blog–Texas Liberal–as Blog of the Year for 2011.
Loyal readers may recall that two years ago I chose this blog as Blog of the Decade.
It seems a bit egotistical to award myself the Blog of the Decade title again so early in this current decade. It is only 2011.
So I’ll hold off on that for now.
That said— I do view myself as the front-runner for that prize to be awarded at the end of 2019.
For winning the title of 2011 Blog of the Year, I have awarded myself a picture of a trophy.
I realize that trophy may well look like the 1775 Nottingham Race Cup currently on display at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
It is also the picture of the trophy for that is the prize for being 2011 Blog of the Year.
Thanks to everybody for reading the blog and for offering your comments.
For the year ahead–just as in the year now ending–the work of freedom and democracy is up to each of us.
Every Texan and every American has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, volunteer for candidates and causes, engage in acts of civil disobedience, and to run for public office.
Let’s make 2012 a year of optimism, strong convictions and hard work.
And of course–to end blogging year the right way–here is the Occupy Wall Street website.
Free Rides Available in Houston For Inebriated New Year’s Eve Celebrants—Our Roads Are A Dangerous Freak Show In The Best Of Circumstances
If you feel you’ve had enough to drink and should not drive in the Houston area on New Year’s Eve and in the early hours of New Year’s Day, there are ways to get home that will help you avoid a DWI and help you avoid killing yourself or killing others on the road.
(Above–Anything can happen out on the roads. Photo by Ervinpospisil)
Houston Metro buses and lite rail will be free from 6 PM until 6 AM on the night of the 31st and the morning of the 1st.
Houston AAA is offering free tows for folks. This offer includes people who are not AAA members.
For a free tow and ride home, the AAA number to call is 1-800-222-4357. Ask for a “tipsy tow” and an emergency roadside services truck will come to your location and take you and your car anywhere within 10 miles for free. Tows can be over 10 miles as well but the user will have to pay the excess mileage charges.
Or you can just call a cab.
Police will be out all over the city and Harris County for the holiday weekend.
Anybody who drives in our area knows that our roads are a freak show of anger and idiocy in the best of circumstances.
Here is a Houston Chronicle story about an area woman who was hit by an alleged drunk driver on Christmas Eve while she was out on her property checking her mailbox.
Don’t be part of a fully avoidable problem over the holiday weekend.
Tip Well For New Year’s Holiday—Treat Working People Well All The Time
If on New Year’s Day you make use of the services of a person who normally would receive a tip, please be certain to tip that person the same time-and-a-half rate you would expect to be paid for working a holiday.
This is only fair.
Cab drivers and waiters are working people just as you are.
If you are not paid extra for working a holiday, please do not take it out on others.
The rights and status of working people in this country are tenuous enough as it is.
How we treat other working people is a measure of our own self-respect.
Please respect the labor of others just as you would hope others would respect the hours of your life that you spend at work.
Please consider that Monday, January 2 is the day that many working people will get the New Year’s holiday. Tip well on that day as well.
While , of course, tipping well and treating other working people is something we should do each day, a holiday offers an extra opportunity to acknowledge our common role as people who must work for a living.
We will be better able to advocate for each other as working people when we get more into the habit of treating each other with respect in daily circumstances.
Here is the Occupy Wall Street website.
And, also, please don’t drink and drive on New Year’s Eve.
Crocodile Takes Lawnmower—It Makes Plenty Enough Sense
I feel I’d be remiss not to post about the saltwater crocodile in Australia that grabbed a lawnmower and watched over it quite closely.
The crocodile was in time tricked into giving up the lawnmower.
Here is a link to a video of the lawnmower abduction.
This took place at the Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, Australia.
Here are facts about visiting Australia. I’ve never been to Australia.
If you decide to visit Australia, please be certain to tip service workers well and to be respectful of the working people you encounter on your trip.
Here is the website for Occupy Sydney, Australia.
A saltwater crocodile is a large and fearsome creature.
Here is some history of lawnmowers.
I know this is a freak show kind of story, but that does not mean you can’t use it to learn something new.
So much of what goes on that we might view as more serious news is a freak show as well.
Given your expectation that giant crocodiles would be aggressive and unpredictable, you could argue that this story makes more sense than does much of the daily news.
There is always so much to learn.
Here are facts about reptiles.
I hope folks are having a nice holiday season.
Industrial Skyline For Houston’s Milby Park
Above is a skyline of petrochemical facilities and a Goodyear plant as seen from Milby Park in Houston.
The body of water is Sims Bayou.
While significant issues of air pollution and water pollution exist in Houston, this is not the point I’m making.
I found this an interesting contrast.
Contrast provides much of the substance of life.
There is a lot to be seen and observed in everyday life.
All you have to do is look around and pay some attention.
Everybody has the ability to observe everyday life and to consider what they see.
Individuality & Connection
I was out and about in Houston today.
The picture above was taken today and conveys the fact that it was quite sunny.
I was thinking as I walked and drove around about the need to take everybody as individual, while at the same time not forgetting that everyone is connected.
These two imperatives can draw upon different internal resources, and can highlight competing strains of thought about how to view the world.
Also, it was so bright and sunny as I traveled around the big city today. Individual things stand in such clear relief when so clearly lit.
Still–I was not swayed from my thoughts. Being under the light of the sun was a unifying aspect of the things I saw.
In the year ahead please consider finding the internal resources and flexibility of mind to accept the people you encounter as individuals and without preconceived notions, while at the same time grasping that what happens to one person happens to all people.
Where In Houston Can You Recycle Your Christmas Tree?—As Admirable Act As Recycling Your Tree Is, America Refuses To Address Climate Change
Christmas Day is over.
While you may be more tired of your relatives than you are of your Christmas Tree, it is the tree that you will have to ditch.
The City of Houston offers Christmas Tree recycling services.
This is just one of the many ways that government helps everyday people.
The City of Houston has also been nice enough to make available the flier you see at the top of the post.
Free materials for bloggers to use is indeed a fine city service.
Here is what the City says on its web page about Christmas tree recycling.
Every year, Houstonians discard thousands of used Christmas trees that could be recycled into useable items. The COH is encouraging residents to recycle their Christmas trees to give them a new lease on life and make the recycling of Christmas trees a family tradition.
Please remove tinsel, lights, ornaments, plastic tree stands and plastic water bowls from the trees. The recycled trees will be converted into mulch, which will in turn help save landfill space and help preserve the environment.
That is very helpful information.
Here is a Houston Chronicle story about various places you can bring your tree in the Houston area.
Of course–as good a deed as recycling your tree may be and as good as it make you feel–this does not change the fact that climate change is real, and may well be due to human activity on the Earth.
The problem is that Republicans, and the wealthy interests that own the Republican Party, won’t even allow us to collect the data that would help resolve this issue.
And if climate change impacts the poor around the world more than the comparatively wealthy?
That is a problem for somebody else far away.
Our pious nation lives the Christmas spirit of consumption all year round.
Here is a website that has a lot of information about Christmas tree recycling and, also, offers a list of links from around the nation about where you can recycle your tree.
Please Have A Nice And Safe Christmas Day
Please have a nice and safe Christmas Day.
Thanks for reading Texas Liberal.
Now step away from the computer or turn away from the mobile phone, and go say hello to family and friends.
If you’ve had enough of such people by now on the holiday, then go read a book.
Welcome To Texas Liberal
Texas Liberal is a blog of politics and political history.
My name is Neil Aquino. Here is my profile.
Additional focuses of the blog are books, art, poetry, personal relationships and, also, sea life and marine mammals.
( The picture above is of the Houston Ship Channel. A narrow channel can lead to a wide sea.)
The signature post of this blog is the Martin Luther King Reading & Reference List. This list is the best of it’s kind on the web.
Another good post is my reciting the words to the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts on Galveston Island, Texas as a ship passes behind.
I live in Houston, Texas and I do sometimes write about political issues in Houston and in Texas.
I also often write about my former hometown of Cincinnati, and about the great beach city of Galveston, Texas.
I define liberalism as a role for government in the economy to help make life more fair, and a broad acceptance of people regardless of who they are.
This is why it says “All People Matter” at the top of the blog.
A blog grows one reader at a time. If you like what you read here, please consider forwarding the link.
Texas Liberal began regular posting on July 25, 2006.
I also blog at the Houston Chronicle as one of eight featured political bloggers, and on Where’s The Outrage? which posts out of North Carolina.
I can be reached at naa six one eight at att dot net
Thanks for reading Texas Liberal.
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